Laboratory studies of ingredients in seven beloved flea and tick control products report adverse health effects in all animals tested. The effects of these well known and aggressively marketed products range from convulsions, body tremors and labored breathing to thyroid cancer, brain lesions, and liver and lung tumors. Yet Tv commercials with trusty finding veterinarians pitch only the happy side of these products.
Which flea and tick pesticide are you using on your dog and/or cat? If your beloved treatment contains the active ingredient Fipronil, Imidacloprid, Methoprene, Permethrin, Pyriproxyfen or the inert ingredient Butyldydroxytoluene, Butylhydroxanisole, Carbitol, Ethanol, or Polyvinlpyrrplidone, you need to know about the not-so-happy side of these products as well.
If you think your veterinarian or local pet store would never sell you such a sinister poison, think again.
Advantage (Bayer Corporation), Adams Spot-On Flea & Tick control (Farnam Pet Products), BioSpot Flea & Tick control (Farnam Pet Products), Defend Exspot treatment (Schering-Plough Animal Health), Frontline Top Spot (Merial Limited), Frontline Plus (Merial Limited), and Zodiac FleaTrol Spot On (Wellmark International) - all comprise one or more of the aforementioned active or inert ingredients.
Toxicology and morbidity findings from these pesticide products were gathered over a decade of laboratory testing by the United States Environmental security Agency; Occupational security & health Administration, U.S. Branch of Labor; prolongation Toxicology Network; Journal of Pesticide Reform; Pesticide performance Network North America and other sources, with added information supplied by Material security Data Sheets.
Most testing was performed for the benefit of new product manufacturers in order to qualify for Epa registration. Scientists overdose laboratory animals to rule how much of the product will kill 50% of the test population. information is then extrapolated and assumptions made that may apply to domestic animals and human beings.
According to laboratory tests, Fipronil (Frontline Top Spot and Frontline Plus) is a neurotoxin and suspected human cancer agent. Fipronil can cause liver toxicity, thyroid cancer, kidney damage, raised cholesterol, lack of coordination, labored breathing, miscarriages and stunted offspring.
Laboratory testing of Imidacloprid (Advantage) on mice, dogs and rats shows this insecticide to be neurotoxic to laboratory animals, also causing a breakdown of coordination, labored breathing, lesions of the thyroid, reduced birth weight, and increased birth defects.
The artificial broad spectrum pyrethroid insecticide Permethrin (Adams Spot-on Flea & Tick Control; BioSpot Flea & Tick Control; and Defend Exspot Treatment) shows indications of being an endocrine disrupter and the cause of lung cancer and liver tumors in laboratory animals.
Methoprene and Pyriproxyfen (Zodiac FleaTrol Spot On; and BioSpot Flea & Tick Control) are known as insect growth regulators (Igr), both of which restrict the growth of fleas to the adolescent stage where reproduction is not possible. Laboratory testing reveals that Methoprene causes enlarged livers and degeneration of the kidneys.
Unfortunately, few population no ifs ands or buts read Epa test results. Fewer still want to hear about the many laboratory test subjects (unwanted dogs and cats) killed while and after the studies in order to rule damage to definite systems and organs. But it only takes a few population with simple reasoning to bring about change. Are you ready to stop this insanity? There are sufficient alternatives, as you know.
Today there are totally natural flea and tick remedies - thoroughly safe to kids, pets and the environment - made from pure botanical principal oils. Some natural products work fairly well, some don't, and some work much better than the toxic stuff!
The mode of performance - the way these natural remedies kill fleas and ticks - is to disrupt the insect's quality to function by blocking a substance called octopamine. In nature, inevitable plants have advanced a natural defense against bugs. These "octopamine blockers" in plants are extracted as oils and used as active ingredients. Octopamine is to an insect what adrenalin is to a human. When blocked from the system, the insect quickly dies. No muss, no fuss. Nobody gets hurt but the bug.
Please begin today to stop supporting the heartless laboratory testing of innocent animals, the insidious cover-up and rush to market of big business, and the unwitting harm we may be doing to our children, our pets, and our planet.
